Colin Powell's Logic - Should US Leaders Apologize For Hate Crimes?

I read on MSNBC that Powell chastised leaders in islamic countries for not doing enough to condemn the murder of Michael Berg, and comparing their reaction to muder to the U.S. torture of Iraqi prisoners. Is this a fair comparison? Afterall, I don't believe that any country sponsored this murder, unless someone can tell me otherwise. The murder strikes me as a an extremely heinous hate crime, rather than as a government sponsored actvity, like the U.S. torture. Note: If a government is found to have been connected to this murder, I think we should go after that government aggressively.

Then again maybe is Powell is right. Perhaps Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld, etc. should apologize everytime a hate crime is committed against a Muslim.

For example:

"In the Fort Worth-Dallas area, the slaying of a convenience store clerk in Mesquite and the fire-bombing of a Denton mosque were among the reported incidents of violence toward Arabs and Muslims.

Mark Stroman, 33, of Dallas, was sentenced to death in the Oct. 4, 2001 fatal shooting of Vasudev Patel, 49, an immigrant from India. Stroman, who remains on Death Row pending appeal, told a TV reporter that he killed the store clerk in a rage over the 9-11 attacks. Stroman was also linked to separate shootings of two Pakistani store clerks."

By Powell's logic, I guess we should expect Bush to harshly condemn this killing and explain that Stroman's actions do not reflect the Christian faith or the policies of the United States.

is not helping matters in this country. It raises the idea that we Americans are the only ones who deserve apologies, and that every Muslim country should apologize for whatever a group that may be Muslim may do. Many Americans have this strange notion that if someone who may be Muslim does something bad, then everyone in Islam is somehow responsible. Personally, I'm getting very tired of having freepers on other boards telling me that I should "reform Islam", like an American Sufi can wave her hand and immediately change the practices of Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia. As I finally told one, that would be like expecting a Unitarian in Australia to do something about the pedafile priests in the Catholic Church in the US.

You see, to the American TV-induced mainstream, all 'Arabs' (a codeword for Muslim in the US) are alike -- 'those people' killed Berg, ergo, 'those people' should apologize, no matter that they had nothing to do with it.

This is completely different than the situation Powell is trying to draw analogies to -- that of Iraqi prisoners tortured in US run jails. The jailers were drawing a paycheck from the US, and acting on official orders.

As others have also pointed out, this racisim is at the root of the US public's belief that Iraq was somehow responsible for the attacks on 9/11. It doesn't matter that there is absolutely no connection -- they are all 'Arabs'. To the US public, 'those people' attacked NYC, therefore, by attacking 'those people' in Iraq, we somehow exact revenge.

It's beyond sad -- it's pathetic and embarrassing for supposedly 'educated' people to think this way. And it's not going to change overnight by any means...

In the world according to Powell:

1. The NAACP should be taken to task for not doing enough to condemn black on white crime.

2. Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc., should be apologize for the molestation scandal in the Catholic church.

3. The Bush administration should apologize for incidents of white on black crime.

4. The American jewish community should show some more outrage about the displacement of palestinians by the Israeli government.

I guess I should expect Powell to start giving speeches in which he asks what do "you people" want?

American lives are worth more than any other lives. The fact that there is even a distinction made in reporting how many american lives are lost and how many other lives are lost (not that the amount of non american and therefore nonsignificant lives is ever really reported) makes me sick

Powell a hypocrite even hasbala condemn it